The arrival of the telegraph put Pony Express riders like John Blair (John Wayne) and his pal Smoky (Lane Chandler) out of work they try to start a stagecoach route through a ghost town.
A rival stagecoach company tries to stop them.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Mack V. Wright
Producer: Nat Levine
Production Company: Republic Pictures
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Keywords: Western; John Wayne
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 19,905 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: jeffzkrazie - - June 13, 2011
Subject: Truly my favorite John Wayne B-Western
This is quite truly my favorite John Wayne B-Western. As Dark Moon posted below it has plenty of action, a REALLY good stagecoach race. Some pretty good comedy to, not enough to really make the picture look all that bad.

A solid four stars from Jeffzkrazie

Reviewer: Dark Moon - - May 26, 2011
Subject: Satisfying

The arrival of the telegraph puts Pony Express riders like John Blair (John Wayne) and his pal Smoky (Lane Chandler) out of work...but their boss gives them their pick of two pony express horses (well known for their hardiness and endurance) each as a severance bonus. They decide to team up with their four horses and start a stage coach line, but get swindled when they buy sight unseen a franchise line to a ghost town. Blair (Wayne) gets even by beating the crook at his own game, while putting the ghost town back on the map almost single-handed.

Another early John Wayne, though he's at the point in this film where his name is being featured in the opening credits. Nevertheless, he's still on the way up in his career, so that he is still acting, rather than just coasting on his name recognition.

The plot is predictable, but there is plenty of action, and the battle of wits, cunning, and dirty tricks maintains tension throughout the film. Of course the good guy wins in the end, but he wins because he is sufficiently tougher and smarter than the other guy that he doesn't need to resort to dirty tricks, which makes for a satisfying ending.

Good quality print with clear audio and video, and encoded at a sufficiently high resolution that detail is easy to discern. There is some occasional pixellation, but not enough to be distracting.